Racial Differences in Blood Pressure Control Following Stroke: The REGARDS Study

In the general population, Black adults are less likely than White adults to have controlled blood pressure (BP), and when not controlled, they are at greater risk for stroke compared with White adults. High BP is a major modifiable risk factor for recurrent stroke, but few studies have examined racial differences in BP control among stroke survivors.

We used data from the REGARDS study (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) to examine disparities in BP control between Black and White adults, with and without a history of stroke. We studied participants taking antihypertensive medication who did and did not experience an adjudicated stroke (n=306 and 7693 participants, respectively) between baseline (2003-2007) and a second study visit (2013-2016). BP control at the second study visit was defined as systolic BP <130 mm Hg and diastolic BP <80 mm Hg except for low-risk adults ≥65 years of age (ie, those without diabetes, chronic kidney disease, history of cardiovascular disease, and with a 10-year predicted atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk <10%) for whom BP control was defined as systolic BP <130 mm Hg.

Among participants with a history of stroke, 50.3% of White compared with 39.3% of Black participants had controlled BP. Among participants without a history of stroke, 56.0% of White compared with 50.2% of Black participants had controlled BP. After multivariable adjustment, there was a tendency for Black participants to be less likely than White participants to have controlled BP (prevalence ratio, 0.77 [95% CI, 0.59-1.02] for those with a history of stroke and 0.92 [95% CI, 0.88-0.97] for those without a history of stroke).

There was a lower proportion of controlled BP among Black compared with White adults with or without stroke, with no statistically significant differences after multivariable adjustment.